January 1st, 2009 – Dehradun, India
Ram gasped as if he had been underwater for years. His lungs expanded with the cold, dry mountain air of Dehradun in winter. The sky outside his window glowed dim with dawn, mist clinging to the edges of rooftops like faded memories. His mind was spinning, but it wasn't confusion—it was clarity. Stark. Overwhelming.
He wasn't supposed to be here. Not like this. Not like a child.
But there he was, in a small bed in a modest two-bedroom house, draped in cartoon bedsheets, wearing tiny pajamas. On the wall, a peeling poster of a cartoon superhero. On the table, a stack of notebooks labeled "Class 4 – Ram Sharma."
He was 9 years old again.
But he remembered everything.
Everything from the year 2035—AI revolutions, the rise of post-nation economies, quantum-powered neural interfaces, climate repair nanotech, interplanetary settlements on Mars, the collapse of fiat currencies, and the bloody wars fought over misinformation.
He remembered dying. Or at least—what felt like dying.
His last memory was in the cold lab at IIT Research Center, running a high-risk consciousness transfer protocol using the newly stabilized quantum singularity core. They were testing a theory—time rebound: the possibility that consciousness could escape linear time if coupled with the right particle tether.
It worked. Too well.
Ram threw off his blanket and stood up, legs wobbly. His arms were thinner than he remembered. No muscle tone, no nanofiber implants. Pure, fragile biology. His knees buckled slightly as he stood barefoot on the freezing tile floor. He rushed to the corner of the room and reached under his pillow.
Please, let it be there.
He found it.
A small, obsidian-black device the size of a candy bar. Cool to the touch. Sleek, seamless. No buttons. No ports. Just a single silver glyph glowing on the back: ∞.
His quantum phone. The QuantumCore X7.
It wasn't a phone by any 2009 standard. It was a quantum-computing, AI-assisted, decentralized superdevice with the processing power of a nation's mainframe, built in 2035. It contained terabytes of future history. Market records. Scientific papers. All encrypted and synced with a highly advanced AI: Veda.
He whispered, "Veda… activate."
Nothing happened.
He pressed the back symbol. Still nothing.
His heart began to pound.
What if it didn't survive the jump?
Then suddenly, a soft glow shimmered across the screen. It pulsed once, then displayed text in Devnagri and English:
> Welcome, Ram. Time displacement detected. Year: 2009. January. Mission Protocol: Global Reset v1. Would you like to initiate Project Bharat Rising?
Ram's breath caught in his throat. "Yes," he whispered. "Begin initialization."
A soft chime filled the air.
> AI companion Veda activated.
Syncing knowledge repository… complete.
Battery: Quantum-core stable. Operating at 0.05% to preserve entropy.
Then a voice, calm, feminine, and ageless, spoke aloud:
"Welcome home, Ram."
He exhaled deeply. Tears welled in his eyes. He wasn't dreaming. This was real. He had gone back in time. Into his own body. With the one tool that could change everything.
And he had work to do.